A distributed system, such as a cluster of computing nodes, hosts a number of services that are available to clients. The hosting of services across a cluster of computing nodes enables performance of dynamic load-balancing as demand on the computing nodes varies, as computing node failures occur, as well as for changes in computing node scale. In order for the computing nodes in the cluster to provide reliable fault tolerance, a backup computing node provides the same service states as a primary computing node in the event of a primary computing node failure.